Health Affairs

The U.S. military would face serious problems providing adequate medical care to American combat casualties in the event of war in Europe or the Pacific, the Boston Herald said in quoting Pentagon reports. The reports on the medical preparedness of the U.S. European and Pacific Commands, made last year by Pentagon health authorities, were classified as government secrets last year over the objections of Congress and the Pentagon's health affairs office.

WASHINGTON - Immigrants in the United States both legally and illegally are helping sustain Medicare, contributing about $14 billion more a year to the federal health program for the elderly than they use in medical services, a new study indicates. The surplus generated by immigrants contrasts sharply with deficits caused by native-born Americans, as medical care for elderly beneficiaries depletes Medicare's reserves more quickly than working-age U.S. natives can refill them. The report - published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs as Congress debates immigration overhaul legislation - does not calculate the full impact of immigrants in the country illegally on all government healthcare programs.

More Americans are choosing not to buy health insurance even when their employers offer it, according to a study that sheds new light on why the ranks of the uninsured have been swelling. The study, published in today's issue of the journal Health Affairs, shows that the number of people who turned down employers' health plans more than doubled over the last decade, to 6 million last year.

December 5, 2011 | By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog

Good news for aging baby boomers: Fears of a nursing shortage may be turning around. Between 1979 and 1991, the number of young nurses declined nearly 50%. It continued to drop for another decade, hitting a low of 102,000 in 2002. Looking at the numbers, analysts worried that as older nurses retired, there wouldn't be anyone to replace them, leading to a shortfall. But when economists David I. Auerbach of Rand Health, Peter I. Buerhaus of...

Re "The battle of the wounded," Opinion, Jan. 5 The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs ensure service members returning from conflict are provided with world-class care before, during and after deployments. Better training, advanced equipment and talented personnel are saving hundreds of lives that previously would have been lost on the battlefield. In fact, we have the lowest casualty rate in the history of warfare and the lowest disease and non-battle injury rates. The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs will continue to work closely to provide this care -- and to ensure a seamless transition for service members moving from active duty to veteran status.

IBM Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., Computer Sciences Corp. and Accenture Ltd. have won contracts to develop models for a national system of electronic health information. Each will work with healthcare providers in different areas of the U.S. during the next year, the Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday. IBM will operate in New York and North Carolina. Northrop Grumman will work in California and Ohio. Computer Sciences will operate in Indiana, Massachusetts and California.

December 5, 2011 | By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog

Good news for aging baby boomers: Fears of a nursing shortage may be turning around. Between 1979 and 1991, the number of young nurses declined nearly 50%. It continued to drop for another decade, hitting a low of 102,000 in 2002. Looking at the numbers, analysts worried that as older nurses retired, there wouldn't be anyone to replace them, leading to a shortfall. But when economists David I. Auerbach of Rand Health, Peter I. Buerhaus of...

Government figures released today show that Americans may be getting a respite from the torrid pace of increases in healthcare spending, but experts cautioned that it was too soon for a national sigh of relief. The data show that in 2005, spending on healthcare grew 6.9%. That was the smallest rate of increase since 1999, and marked the third straight year in which the pace had moderated. In 2004, for example, spending grew by 7.2%.

When American kids reflect upon their childhoods decades from now, snacks may figure more prominently in their memories -- and around their waists -- than meals shared around a table. From 1977 to 2006, American children have added 168 snack calories per day to their diets, a study finds. They're munching cookies after school, granola bars on the way to piano lessons, chips after an hour of soccer practice and peanut butter and crackers while waiting for dinner. For some, those extra 1,176 calories a week could amount to as much as 13 1/2 pounds of body fat a year.

WASHINGTON - Immigrants in the United States both legally and illegally are helping sustain Medicare, contributing about $14 billion more a year to the federal health program for the elderly than they use in medical services, a new study indicates. The surplus generated by immigrants contrasts sharply with deficits caused by native-born Americans, as medical care for elderly beneficiaries depletes Medicare's reserves more quickly than working-age U.S. natives can refill them. The report - published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs as Congress debates immigration overhaul legislation - does not calculate the full impact of immigrants in the country illegally on all government healthcare programs.

The percentage of American children who are overweight or obese has been growing for decades, and now nearly one in three has a body mass index that's greater than normal. Although evidence suggests that obesity rates are leveling off overall, for some groups of kids — especially poor or minority kids — the problem continues to grow, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs. Using data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, the study showed marked regional differences.

When American kids reflect upon their childhoods decades from now, snacks may figure more prominently in their memories -- and around their waists -- than meals shared around a table. From 1977 to 2006, American children have added 168 snack calories per day to their diets, a study finds. They're munching cookies after school, granola bars on the way to piano lessons, chips after an hour of soccer practice and peanut butter and crackers while waiting for dinner. For some, those extra 1,176 calories a week could amount to as much as 13 1/2 pounds of body fat a year.

Re "The battle of the wounded," Opinion, Jan. 5 The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs ensure service members returning from conflict are provided with world-class care before, during and after deployments. Better training, advanced equipment and talented personnel are saving hundreds of lives that previously would have been lost on the battlefield. In fact, we have the lowest casualty rate in the history of warfare and the lowest disease and non-battle injury rates. The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs will continue to work closely to provide this care -- and to ensure a seamless transition for service members moving from active duty to veteran status.

Government figures released today show that Americans may be getting a respite from the torrid pace of increases in healthcare spending, but experts cautioned that it was too soon for a national sigh of relief. The data show that in 2005, spending on healthcare grew 6.9%. That was the smallest rate of increase since 1999, and marked the third straight year in which the pace had moderated. In 2004, for example, spending grew by 7.2%.

The linchpin of UC Irvine's plan to reform its scandal-plagued medical programs fell into place Thursday with the hiring of Dr. David N. Bailey as vice chancellor for health affairs. The new position, which will oversee UCI's medical school and hospital, begins April 1. Bailey comes to UCI after three decades at UC San Diego, where he now serves as interim medical school dean and interim vice chancellor for health services.

IBM Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., Computer Sciences Corp. and Accenture Ltd. have won contracts to develop models for a national system of electronic health information. Each will work with healthcare providers in different areas of the U.S. during the next year, the Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday. IBM will operate in New York and North Carolina. Northrop Grumman will work in California and Ohio. Computer Sciences will operate in Indiana, Massachusetts and California.

The percentage of American children who are overweight or obese has been growing for decades, and now nearly one in three has a body mass index that's greater than normal. Although evidence suggests that obesity rates are leveling off overall, for some groups of kids — especially poor or minority kids — the problem continues to grow, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs. Using data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, the study showed marked regional differences.

After struggling for months with wobbly finances and internal dissension, the director of UCLA Medical Center announced Tuesday that he will leave his job to take a top post at the University of Kentucky's medical center. Dr. Michael Karpf, 58, has been with UCLA since 1995 and oversaw the school's three hospitals and 18 primary-care clinics.

A top University of California administrator was named Thursday as UC Irvine's fifth chancellor by the regents, who handed him the task of leading the up-and-coming school into higher education's elite. Dr. Michael V. Drake, 54, an ophthalmologist and UC's vice president for health affairs, takes over at UC Irvine on July 1.

More Americans are choosing not to buy health insurance even when their employers offer it, according to a study that sheds new light on why the ranks of the uninsured have been swelling. The study, published in today's issue of the journal Health Affairs, shows that the number of people who turned down employers' health plans more than doubled over the last decade, to 6 million last year.